The Autism Wardrobe

My eldest son is 15 years old and has Autism, he was diagnosed when he was 4 years old and life has been an adventure to say the least. It really is a cliche to call it a rollercoaster but it is just that, full of ups and downs, twists and turns and everyday is a school day as we say in our family. Apart from the downs though Autism can have quite a few ups (some people may not be feeling that right now I know). Today was one of those days, an up day, a moment which which just stops me in my tracks and makes me giggle. It was  a no-college day today so I am using this opportunity to take my son out on the days he is not in college and try and teach him some life skills, teach him to do shopping, try and look after money, buy mum coffee at Costa, learn about the best handbags to buy (oops did I say that out loud)? Well he needs to get his priorities right, he may have to look after me one day! So I asked him to get dressed this morning and as the picture shows, when I walked into the bedroom this is where he left everything. Now not sure it's an autism thing. I expected with a teenager and a young man, to find clothes all over the place but to be honest this was the last place I ever imagined to find them. I understand his strategy, if you hang your clothes up here you could actually pull them down whilst in bed and get dressed without leaving the comfort of the duvet, brilliant!!! It reminded me of something you'd see Wallace from Wallace and Gromit do before he invented that fabulous machine that got him dressed and made his breakfast, we would all love that surely? Before this arrangement he would usually leave his clothes laid out on the floor as he had worn them, as if he had just jumped straight out of them, scared me at first as I thought I was in a 'mum you've shrunk your kid' scenerio. I love his mind, it doesn't always run smoothly, and come to think of it, not everyone's does, autism or no autism but his world is very interesting, maybe sometimes we should enter more into their world (the world of autism) and spend less time trying to bring them into ours (a neurotypical one), could be completely mind blowing but might be fun. 
Pj's at the ready and catch ya tomorrow. 

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